Parents who try to teach young children the idea of fairness may be wasting theirtime, research suggests. Scientists have shown that the majority of three and four-year-olds are inherently selfish.

But by the age of seven, most have acquired the ability to consider other people’sfeelings.

The findings will come as no surprise to parents who struggle to get very young children to play games or share toys without tears and tantrums.

Tantrum: Toddlers are not 'hard-wired' to think about others and find it hard to share their toys and sweets until they reach the age of seven

Scientists asked 229 Swiss schoolchildren to share packets of sweets with another child of the same age.

The children were told they could divide the sweets evenly between them - using the 'one for me, one for you' pattern, or unfairly.

The unfair options included 'one for me and none for you', and 'one for you and two for me'.

The three and four-year-olds taking part in the experiment tended to think of themselves - and rarely gave their partners any sweets, the researchers report today in the journal Nature.

Even when being generous meant that the 'dealer' of the sweets didn't lose out, the children were still willing to deprive their partner of a sweet.

Fewer than 10 per cent of the three and four-year-olds shared the sweets equally.

But when the same experiment was carried out with seven and eight-year-olds, the pattern changed dramatically.

By this age, most of the children routinely chose the fairest options for handing out sweets, especially when it involved sharing with a friends.

The researchers, led by Dr Ernst Fehr, from the University of Zurich, said : 'At age three to four, the overwhelming majority of children behave selfishly, whereas most children at age seven-eight prefer resource allocations that remove advantageous or disadvantageous inequality.'

Similar experiments on our closest animal relatives - chimpanzees - found they remained resolutely selfish throughout life, the scientists said.

Psychologists say children rarely develop the ability to empathise with other people's point of view, until they reach primary school age.

Past studies have shown, for instance, that most three-year-olds are unable to lie.

When asked to comment on a painting in one experiment, almost all were brutally honest in their criticism - even when the painter was present.

But by the age of four, they began to give more favourable criticism when the painter was present - suggesting that they have learnt to flatter.

Although very young children are often unable to think of others without prompting from adults, many educationalists say parents should still teach the importance of fair play and sharing - if only to avoid fights.